Director Na Hong-jin's 'Hope' explores how small acts spiral into catastrophe

SEOUL, July 7 -- Na Hong-jin, the director behind the sci-fi thriller "Hope," said Tuesday he turned to the vastness of space to show how small acts of tragedy and violence, even without ill intent, can spiral into catastrophe.

Set in a pre-smartphone era presumably in the 1970s or 80s, the film follows local cops and villagers who fight mysterious but powerful entities that suddenly appear in a forlorn seaside town near the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone.

The action-packed film, with its star-studded cast, including Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, as well as Hollywood actors Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, was invited to compete at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival this year.

"A person who provides the seed for the tragedy commits a very trivial act in a very small town and this movie follows how big this can become, how tremendously tragic situations can arise from the smallest things," Na told reporters in a group interview.

"And what the movie shows is the source of this wrongdoing may not necessarily be driven by malice," he said.

To highlight this contrast, Na sets the film in a small and remote village.

"Isolation carries an important meaning in the story," he said, when asked about the fictional harbor town of Hopo where the story unfolds. "I wanted to tell a story that begins in a tiny, humble place. It is like a speck that gradually expands in a manner that cannot be contained and into a story of the entire universe."

Na previously delved into supernatural forces in his 2016 horror film "The Wailing," which follows how a rural town is affected by a mysterious outsider. He said he wanted to deepen this perspective by leaning into the presence of a greater being.

"In 'The Wailing,' I used supernatural phenomena to build the story. I started wondering how I could deepen such a perspective ... and that made me think I wanted to reach toward a greater being, naturally leading me to the setting of space," Na said, explaining why he brought extraterrestrial beings to the film.

While "Hope" touches on the concepts of belief and resurrection -- with the remote town where the movie is set intentionally named after the English word "hope" -- Na did not elaborate on what that hope means, saying anything can be projected onto it.

What is clear, though, is that he wanted to take his audiences on a thrill ride.

"I wanted to maximize that thrill by creating the sounds and the visuals so that the audiences at the theater feel they are in the story. That was the ultimate goal," Na said, adding he is still in the final editing stage ahead of the film's release next week.